Latest NHS England figures show:

• Cancer care activity at an all-time high
• Busiest month this year for ambulance services, record number of most serious call-outs
• Waiting list for planned care reaches almost 7.8 million.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said:

"With health services working flat out under extreme pressure and demand outstripping capacity now, winter threatens to leave the NHS feeling the heat.

"Trusts are every bit as worried as their patients about the long-term effects on people's health the longer they have to wait for treatment. The waiting list for planned care continues to rise and remains at a record high.

"Sheer hard work by trusts has reduced the longest waits for patients and increased diagnostic and cancer activity. However, waiting times for mental and physical care were getting longer even before the pandemic after years of underfunding, severe staff shortages and overstretched social care.

"Trusts had to cope too with six days of industrial action in August and four in September, including the first ever joint strike by consultants and junior doctors. With the threat of more disruptive strikes ahead we need the government and unions to resolve the disputes quickly.

"The busiest September on record for A&E departments, with attendances up by almost 8% compared to the same time last year, is just one sign of the pressures facing the NHS. High numbers of the most serious ambulance call-outs and more attendances to A&E have a knock-on effect on already stretched hospital, ambulance, mental health and community services.

"The NHS needs more beds, more staff and more up-to-date equipment and facilities to give patients first-class care. That requires proper long-term government funding and support. If ministers want to see shorter waiting lists – one of the government's priorities – these issues must be tackled.

"And with 125,000 unfilled jobs across the NHS today we still don't know exactly how all of the ambitions in the long-term workforce plan, published in June, will be funded."

You can follow our analysis of the latest performance figures from NHS England through our NHS Activity Tracker campaign.